[gpfsug-discuss] How to join GNR nodes to a non-GNR cluster

Wed Dec 4 09:29:32 GMT 2019

Thank you all for the answer. I try to recap my answers to your questions:

  1.  the purpose is not to merge clusters "per se"; it is adding the GL2's 700TB raw space to the current filesystem provided by the GPFS/NetApp (which is running out of free space); of course I know well the heterogeneity of this hypothetical system, so the GL2's NSD would go to a special pool; but in the end I need a unique namespace for files.
  2.  I do not want to do the opposite (mergin GPFS/NetApp into the GL2 cluster) because the former is in production and I cannot schedule long downtimes
  3.  All system have proper licensing of course; what does it means that I could loose IBM support ? if the support is for a failing disk drive I do not think so; if the support is for a "strange" behaviour of GPFS I can probably understand
  4.  NSD (in the NetApp system) are in their roles: what do you mean exactly ? there's RAIDset attached to servers that are actually NSD together with their attached LUN

   Alvise
________________________________
From: gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org <gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org> on behalf of Lyle Gayne <lgayne at us.ibm.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 8:30:31 PM
To: gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
Cc: gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
Subject: Re: [gpfsug-discuss] How to join GNR nodes to a non-GNR cluster

For:

- A NetApp system with hardware RAID
- SpectrumScale 4.2.3-13 running on top of the NetApp < --- Are these NSD servers in their GPFS roles (where Scale "runs on top"?
- A GL2 system with ESS 5.3.2.1 (Spectrum Scale 5.0.2-1)

What I need to do is to merge the GL2 in the other GPFS cluster (running on the NetApp) without loosing, of course, the RecoveryGroup configuration, etc.

I'd like to ask the experts
1.        whether it is feasible, considering the difference in the GPFS versions, architectures differences (x86_64 vs. power)
2.        if yes, whether anyone already did something like this and what is the best strategy suggested
3.        finally: is there any documentation dedicated to that, or at least inspiring the correct procedure ?

......
Some observations:

1) Why do you want to MERGE the GL2 into a single cluster with the rest cluster, rather than simply allowing remote mount of the ESS servers by the other GPFS (NSD client) nodes?

2) Interop of the mix of 4.2 and 5.0 levels should be allowed by our coexistence rules.

3) Mixing x86 and Power, especially as NSD servers, should pose no issues.  Having them as separate file systems (NetApp vs. ESS) means no concerns regarding varying architectures within the same fs serving or failover scheme.  Mixing such as compute nodes would mean some performance differences across the different clients, but you haven't described your compute (NSD client) details.

Lyle
----- Original message -----
From: "Tomer Perry" <TOMP at il.ibm.com>
Sent by: gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org
To: gpfsug main discussion list <gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org>
Cc:
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [gpfsug-discuss] How to join GNR nodes to a non-GNR cluster
Date: Tue, Dec 3, 2019 10:03 AM

Hi,

Actually, I believe that GNR is not a limiting factor here.
mmexportfs and mmimportfs ( man mm??portfs) will export/import GNR configuration as well:
"If the specified file system device is a IBM Spectrum Scale RAID-based file system, then all affected IBM Spectrum Scale RAID objects will be exported as well. This includes recovery groups, declustered arrays, vdisks, and any other file systems that are based on these objects. For more information about IBM Spectrum Scale RAID, see IBM Spectrum Scale RAID: Administration. "

OTOH, I suspect that due to the version mismatch, it wouldn't work - since I would assume that the cluster config version is to high for the NetApp based cluster.
I would also suspect that the filesystem version on the ESS will be different.

Regards,

Tomer Perry
Scalable I/O Development (Spectrum Scale)
email: tomp at il.ibm.com
1 Azrieli Center, Tel Aviv 67021, Israel
Global Tel:    +1 720 3422758
Israel Tel:      +972 3 9188625
Mobile:         +972 52 2554625

From:        "Olaf Weiser" <olaf.weiser at de.ibm.com>
To:        gpfsug main discussion list <gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org>
Date:        03/12/2019 16:54
Subject:        [EXTERNAL] Re: [gpfsug-discuss] How to join GNR nodes to a non-GNR cluster
Sent by:        gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org
________________________________

Hallo
"merging" 2 different GPFS cluster into one .. is not possible ..
for sure you can do "nested" mounts .. .but that's most likely not, what you want to do ..

if you want to add a GL2 (or any other ESS) ..to an existing (other) cluster... -  you can't preserve ESS's RG definitions...
you need to create the RGs after adding the IO-nodes to the existing cluster...

so if you got a new ESS.. (no data on it) .. simply unconfigure cluster ..  .. add the nodes to your existing cluster.. and then start configuring the RGs

From:        "Dorigo Alvise (PSI)" <alvise.dorigo at psi.ch>
To:        "gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org" <gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org>
Date:        12/03/2019 09:35 AM
Subject:        [EXTERNAL] [gpfsug-discuss] How to join GNR nodes to a non-GNR cluster
Sent by:        gpfsug-discuss-bounces at spectrumscale.org
________________________________

Hello everyone,
I have:
- A NetApp system with hardware RAID
- SpectrumScale 4.2.3-13 running on top of the NetApp
- A GL2 system with ESS 5.3.2.1 (Spectrum Scale 5.0.2-1)

What I need to do is to merge the GL2 in the other GPFS cluster (running on the NetApp) without loosing, of course, the RecoveryGroup configuration, etc.

I'd like to ask the experts
1.        whether it is feasible, considering the difference in the GPFS versions, architectures differences (x86_64 vs. power)
2.        if yes, whether anyone already did something like this and what is the best strategy suggested
3.        finally: is there any documentation dedicated to that, or at least inspiring the correct procedure ?

Thank you very much,

  Alvise Dorigo_______________________________________________
gpfsug-discuss mailing list
gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss

_______________________________________________
gpfsug-discuss mailing list
gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss

_______________________________________________
gpfsug-discuss mailing list
gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org
http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gpfsug.org/pipermail/gpfsug-discuss_gpfsug.org/attachments/20191204/be792c95/attachment-0002.htm>